In Murrieta last week, the Mayor and anti-immigrant protesters were claiming fear of "diseases". This didn't come from nowhere. For many years, the Federation for American Immigration Rwform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and Numbers USA have been spreading their signature message of hate. And it's no coincidence that they're all so eerily on message like this. They can all trace their origins to one John Tanton, a well known racist/white supremacist who's been attacking communities of color since 1969.

During the early years of Tanton's anti-immigrant advocacy, he operated in the dark shadows of American politics. But in 1994, one Barbara Coe launched a campaign that would forever transform California and American politics. In 1994, Coe launched both the California Coalition for Immigration Reform and the campaign for Proposition 187. Suddenly, John Tanton's radical xenophobic "philosophy" was making national headlines and California public policy.

That's because Prop 187 passed in November 1994. But soon after it was passed, it was halted in federal court and later invalidated. Barbara Coe would then go on to embrace "fringe of the fringe" conspiracy theory powered extremism (Hello, Orly Taitz!) before she passed away last September. And as a result of the California Republican Party's then unapologetic support of Prop 187, it's becoming increasingly irrelevant in the multicultural California of today.

Yet even though Prop 187 and its #1 cheerleader have met their demise, their legacy lives on. Barbara Coe essentially launched Jim Gilchrist's political career. Jim Gilchrist encouraged the "unique brand of activism" pushed by Shawna Forde. And the anti-immigrant movement built by the likes of Tanton, Coe, & Gilchrist encouraged Sharron Angle to shock Nevada & the nation with her incredibly xenophobic US Senate campaign.